XIV The stability of a philosophical construction will depend not only upon the solidity of the blocks, of the pillars and architraves that make it up, but also upon the way in which all these parts are connected. Of course, it will not be possible to argue for every single part of a philosophical building: to do so would mean to embark in a virtually endless enterprise. Accordingly, some of the parts of a philosophical building will have to be taken from the literature on the subject as 'ready made' or 'semi-finished' elements, while others will be argued for in the course of building. This...

According to the modal interpretation, the standard mathematical framework of quantum mechanics specifies the physical magnitudes of a system, which have definite values. Probabilities are assigned to the possible values that these magnitudes may adopt. The interpretation is thus concerned with physical properties rather than with measurement results: it is a realistic interpretation (in the sense of scientific realism). One of the notable achievements of this interpretation is that it dissolves the notorious measurement problem.
The papers collected here, together with the...

The papers collected here comprise the proceedings of a Workshop in honor ofMerrilee and Wes Salmon, held in Florence on May 17-18, 1996. The aim of the meeting was to pay homage to these two American scholars, whose contact with Italian and European Universities and Institutes had a major influence on "Continental" thought in the field of epistemology and probability. In fact, Merrilee and Wes spent various periods lecturing at the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Rome, Trieste, Catania and Pisa, as well as in the University of Constance, where they helped to build a strong cultural...

Number 10 Sound: The Musical Way 10 the Scientific Revolution is a collection of twelve essays by writers from the fields of musicology and the history of science. The essays show the idea of music held by Euro- th pean intellectuals who lived from the second half of the 15 century to the th early 17: physicians (e. g. Marsilio Ficino), scholars of musical theory (e. g. Gioseffo Zarlino, Vincenzo Galilei), natural philosophers (e. g. Fran- cis Bacon, Isaac Beeckman, Marin Mersenne), astronomers and mathema- ticians (e. g. Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei ). Together with other people of the...

Robert E. Butts (1928-1997) was a philosopher and historian of science whose central concerns were the distinction between the rational and the irrational. He viewed scientific rationality as our major defence against the various conditions that encourage witch hunts and similar outbursts of irrationality, with all their attendant pain and terror. Butts saw himself as a pragmatic realist, combining what he took to be the best aspects of logical empiricism with a historically informed pragmatism, deeply appreciative of the methods of science, trying to describe a kind of rationality essential...